Advice on finding hospital training anywhere in US for community RN's (not new graduates)?

[TyBreathe]

I graduated with a BSN in San Francisco CA in April 2012 and passed the NCLEX RN Board Exam shortly thereafter. I graduated during the recession and there were no local new-graduate hospital training opportunities available in the immediate or broader bay area. Due to family obligations I was unable to travel to pursue new-graduate training opportunities elsewhere in CA or the US.

Fortunately I was able to find work at a community clinic in Oakland CA six months later in October of 2012, and have been employed full time at various clinics since. I have actively pursued as much experience as possible through community and ambulatory care nursing, and feel fortunate to have gathered a wealth of experience over the last four years throughout Oakland, Berkeley, and San Francisco, with very diverse populations in diverse medical settings such as: urgent care, primary care, senior and geriatric care, mobile unit and street medic, as well as performing RN case management, and administrative RN protocol and procedural development.

Unfortunately I've been unable to make the transition from community to hospital nursing despite my attempts to enter hospitals through ambulatory care routes. From my experience, all SF Bay Area hospitals require prior hospital experience for employment, even in ambulatory care. However, things in my life have changed such that I am now able to travel anywhere in the US to pursue further nursing opportunities and hospital training.

I'm open to any advice to accomplish this. Suggestions?

Thank you very much for your time and attention!

Ty Breathe

[roser13, ASN, RN]

Have you thought of travel nursing?

[TyBreathe]

Yes I have thought about travel nursing, but again, I only have community experience and need to get hospital experience. I'm not going travel to get more community experience, but I would travel to get hospital experience if training was involved. I'm unaware that travel nursing opportunities could include training (my understanding was that you already had to have experience), but I will look into this. Thanks for writing!

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

Rural America offers a wealth of opportunities. Critical access hospitals have difficulty attracting staff. Your orientation might not be 'new grad' type of stuff, but I'm guessing you bring a wealth of time management and other skills to the job.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

North Dakota has several level 2 trauma centers and seems to be pretty open to new nurses. I've checked here and there, and it seems like most of their positions don't have experience as a requirement, even in the ED or ICU.